ABSTRACT
The consumer electronics market is driven by cost reduction and applications such as telecommunications, the Internet, and mobile and portable devices. Exponentially increasing functionality must be implemented in smaller areas and with higher performance and power efficiency. To meet these demands, the semiconductor industry has significantly advanced in the past decades, characterized by continuous technology scaling to deep sub-micron and nano-scale dimensions. Approaching the limits of silicon semiconductor technology, Moore's law is coming to an end. Until new electronic devices are introduced in the beyond-CMOS era, predicted after 2020, the industry will continue to improve integration and reduce cost by encompassing functionality of complete systems in a single chip, a so-called system-on-chip (SoC). Such chips include for example WiFi, mobile 3G and 4G capabilities, GPS, cameras and various sensors on the same die.
